Proving something does not make it true. It just means that
you have convinced other people that the evidence supports your
conclusion. There are many examples in law of people who have been
"proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" who were not guilty at
all. And most of us probably suspect that there are guilty people who get
off.
Just as in court, proof in science does
not equal truth. No scientist will ever claim that a theory is
true. What they will do is state that the evidence agrees with the
theory. Of course, sometimes new evidence shows up that we didn't have
before. Then in science, as in law, we will reach a new conclusion.
Actually I believe that Stephen Hawking said
it best in A Brief History of Time” "A theory is a good theory
if it satisfies two requirements: It must accurately describe a large class of
observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary
elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future
observations." He goes on to state, "any physical theory is always
provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it.
No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you
can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory.
On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single
repeatable observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory."
To be fair, there are as many different
views on creation as there are people in the world. Many (but not all) of the
creationists believe that there is still evidence to be uncovered that will
disprove current scientific theory.
Becky Fitzgerald
Creationists often use the word "theory" as if creationism is just
another "theory." But a "theory" in science is a
repeatable experience, that can be proven by repeating the same sets of actions
to get the same result, i.e. a PROOF. Example would be that water consists of
two different elements that can be separated by heat. This can be
demonstrated scientifically by boiling water and getting the separation of
hydrogen and oxygen that can actually be measured and proves that there are two
parts hydrogen to one part oxygen in water. This can be done over and
over again and get the same result.
A scientific theory is not an "idea," it is a provable demonstrable
thesis. Distorting the use of the word "theory" to imply that
creationism is simply another "theory" may work for those ignorant of
the meaning of the word in science, but it should not be utilized to confuse
people and distort understanding. And therein lies the concern of
educated individuals. Creationism confuses people by purposely and
meaningfully distorting the idea of a "theory" to make is seem to
embrace creationism.
Also, it is entirely untrue that creationism tolerates science. The
end-goal of creationists is to take evolution out of the classroom or have it
taught as if it is only another "idea" about the world.
That effort to confuse understanding of our world is a serious problem. If the
museum teaches creationism for what it is and also for what it is not...that
would be good.
Maggie
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